Book on Harper Lee finally answers puzzles about writer's life

I’ve been waiting for this book for a very long time and didn’t know it.

In the summer of 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee – one of the
most influential pieces of American fiction ever -- was published. Almost
50 years after publication it still draws a million readers a year.

When a Ukrainian friend wanted an American book to read for her English
class in Kiev, what did she ask for? The Pulitzer Prize-winning perennial
best-seller “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Hundreds of successful writers from Gus Lee to David Guterson credit Lee’s
work, the only book she ever wrote, with being their inspiration.

And is there anyone who has seen the award-winning movie and doesn’t think
that Gregory Peck, in another life, was Atticus Finch? (Rock Hudson was
seriously considered for the part.)

But the problem has always been that very little was known about the
author, Harper Lee. Recent movies about Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel,
“In Cold Blood,” have stirred up interest in Lee, the diplomatic researcher
who stayed in the background but helped in critical ways to open doors for
the flamboyant Capote.

Then, finally, the book I’d been waiting for appeared last year. It is
“Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee” by Charles Shields, the first book
ever written about the mysterious author.

(And let me urge you now to mark your day book if you want to meet Shields
– he is coming to San Francisco on April 10, 2007. He will give a reading
at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza at 601 Van Ness Ave.)

If you don’t quite remember the details, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the
story of a young girl named Scout and her old brother, Jem, and their
childhood in a small Alabama town in the 1930s. Their father, Atticus
Finch, a lawyer, is appointed to defend a black man falsely accused of
raping a white woman.

The title comes from something Atticus once told Scout – that it’s a sin to
kill a mockingbird because they don’t do anything but make music for people
to enjoy.

This story about tolerance and family and small-town America sold more 30
million copies. But the author stopped giving interviews four years after
her novel was published and has, apparently, written nothing since.

Charles Shields tried to find out why. He admits up front that the one
person he never got to ask was Harper Lee herself. The woman – now in her
8Os – is not a recluse but is not a public figure either.

First, yes, she and the late Truman Capote met each other when they were
young and spent summers together in her hometown of Monroeville, Ala. In
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” the character of Dill Harris is based on Capote.

Her family is not descended from Robert E. Lee and she does not have a law
degree, although she did study law for a time. Instead of becoming a lawyer
like her father and older sister, she quit law school and moved to New York
City to write a novel.

She still lives in her New York City apartment some months of the year and
in Monroeville with her sister the rest of the time.

“Residents are accustomed to seeing the two ladies puttering around the
First United Methodist Church where they have been members all their
lives…but friends warn strangers not to bring up (the novel)…she has been
known to leave the room if pestered,” writes Shields.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter. Why hasn’t Harper Lee written
another novel?

Shields, who interviewed 600 people in researching the biography, suggests
that the perfect mix of circumstance that led to her first novel never
repeated themselves. When Lee wrote her book, she was living alone in New
York on money given to her by friends specifically so she could write
full-time. Her early manuscript landed in the hands of a patient and
perceptive editor who worked with her for two years shaping the final
product. She watched how her friend Capote reacted to fame and probably
decided she didn’t want to follow his path.

Later, after experiencing such unexpected and phenomenal success, she might
have felt unsure of herself. And as her supportive extended family fell
away due to illness and death, she might have frankly decided not to
bother. She had nowhere to go but down.

Yet I can't help hoping that there’s a cache of papers somewhere that
represents stories, novels and essays that she’s written over the past many
years. I would love to read them.

-- Reach Elisabeth Sherwin at gizmo@dcn.org and watch
for more local writers to be featured biweekly at this web site.